i know all i’ve talked/blogged/emailed about in this past week are my stupid teeth, but it really has been controlling my life. i’ve actually lost 5lbs in the last 7 days and while i’ll probably gain that all back immediately, it’s just made me lethargic. i haven’t been going to the gym for fear of ripping my stitches when i make my funny faces with heavy weight, and i think that’s why i haven’t been sleeping well and yeh, eating only mash potatoes and protein shakes fucking sucks.

so today i had my follow up and my oral surgeon gave me the all-clear to finally start eating regular foods again. the dissolveable stitches have dissolved and the wounds are nicely healing. there’s still these super deep holes and he gave me pressure syringes to clean out the food after every meal which is kinda gross, but if it means i can eat regular food again, i’m all for it. on my way home i stopped at del taco and got my fast food burrito of choice since 1996: the spicy chicken burrito. more of it probably went up into the holes than down my stomach, but damn it was good.

now that i don’t have to worry about dry sockets or other complications, i feel like a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders. i even went to the gym (and did shoulders) which was pretty weak, but felt great. i can also start taking care of taka instead of her taking care of me. on monday we went to the obstetrican and he gave her and the baby a clean bill of health. we didn’t do a sonogram but we got to listen to the baby’s heart… exciting stuff. in two weeks we get to find out the sex, and probably will be able to see if it’s got the extra fingers or not, eric’s taking bets by the way.

…and i found this sexy pic i took on my way home from the surgery:

i made the appointment to get my wisdom teeth pulled almost a month ago and i’ve been anxious about it ever since, and each time i felt like just canceling, i realized that i get a 4 day weekend if just go through with it, so yeh, today i got them pulled.

the procedure was quick and painless. the oral surgeon, dr. silegy, is this buff, cool dude, with a very fancy office and hot nurses. i think i already mentioned that he’s one of the surgeons on that extreme makeover show. after they put the anesthesia drip in me, i had about 10 seconds to say ‘i’m feeling woozy’ before i was out. when i woke up, i felt like i hadn’t even fallen asleep, and there wasn’t any pain.

taka took the day off to drive and take care of me, and i picked up gears of war 2 to keep me entertained. i’m also on a good strong dose of vicodin and a steroid called methylprednisolone, so i feel pretty drugged up and pain free. at least it’s over with, and after this heals i can start some braces.

ever since my wisdom teeth came in about 5 or 6 years ago, they’ve bothered me. they aren’t impacted at all so they’re not moving my other teeth, but they’re just so far back in my mouth that they’re bothering my gums and they’re difficult to completely clean since they’re right up against the skin. this has caused frequent cuts and even infections which is painful as hell.

so yesterday as i was kept awake by the pain i decided that i needed to stop being a pussy and take care of it. when i woke up, i called the oral surgeon and scheduled an appointment for the middle of next month to get all 4 removed at once. just the thought of having that many teeth pulled kinda makes me sick, but a few days of pain vs a lifetime of irritation seems like an obvious choice.

i also decided that once that heals i’m going to get braces for my bottom teeth. my top row of teeth are nice and straight but the bottom are getting bunched up and are bound to get worse. it looks like with my insurance, and only aligning the bottom row of teeth should cost about $1000, which seems decent enough not to have ugly teeth.